Our new approach to content

The website redesign is a few weeks old now, and things are beginning to settle down a bit. The ‘launch’ was far from the end – not only do we have the Corporate site to finish, but also the Zone (for children and young people) and out site for our staff and practitioners.

But it doesn’t even stop once these are live. Right from the start, we knew that the ‘launch’ would only the start. We wanted this to be a base to build on, develop and adapt. Things move so fast in the online world – the iPad is only just over a year old and has already revolutionised the way we interact online; smartphones are accounting for more a larger proportion of out visitors each month; and as for social networks, despite recent reports on stalling growth, Facebook still has 30million users in the UK.

We don’t know what the ‘next big thing’ will be – no-one does (despite what some will claim) – which is why the second most important word during the work was ‘flexibility’ (for info, the first was ‘customer’).

In order to adapt, change and generally make sure we’re ready for whatever comes next, we needed to make sure our content could be used flexibly.

Reduction

Less is more. The first step was to try to reduce what we have. Over the years, we had racked up a fairly massive 9000 pages. This was far too much, and we’ve tried to reduce it down to what is needed. We probably erred on the side of caution in this respect – not wishing to remove anything that we felt might be needed – and it will be an ongoing task refine and adjust over the next months and years.

Amalgamate

Previously, all of the content surrounding a service or a particular piece of information could be spread across a range of pages. There could be a home/introduction page, an application form page, a contact details page, a page of ‘useful’ links, a page of ‘useful’ documents, a page of opening times, a page of fees and cost, and maybe a page of ‘other useful information’. That’s potentially eight pages already!

The more pages, the more clicking around and the harder it is to find what you want.

There are a couple of other problems with this approach.

Firstly, search engine results aren’t particularly useful. If you did a search for ‘School buses’, you’d be presented with eight different results to decide from. Even worst, if you had just searched for ‘Buses’, you might have to work through a further eight pages (about ‘normal’ bus services) before you got down to the area you wanted.

Secondly, it makes it difficult to record accurate visitor figures for these pages. The statistics would be spread out across all of the pages, and prevents us getting a proper grip on the visitors that used the service. This in turn reduces our ability to identify our most popular services and work on improving them – making them quicker to access and easier to use.

Reusable

Separation of content from presentation. Use on plasma screens, transfer to new sites, mobile apps, social media feeds.

Open

‘Open data’ is a hot topic at the moment, but doesn’t need to refer to just numbers and figures. We want to make sure that everything we create can be picked up and used easily and quickly by developers and individuals in ways that make sense to them.

Categorised and tagged

Categorisation of the content is essential to this flexibility. We have so far identified four types of content that might be produced for a service:

• Service delivery information – what a customer needs to know to access a service
• News – promotions, campaigns, awards, latest events, etc.
• Events – open days, workshops, recitals, courses, etc
• Consultations – surveys, questionnaires, and other engagement activities

I’m under no doubt that there will be more (documents and leaflets?), but for now we’re working to these four.

Within these content types, we can categorise individual elements by the service that they relate to, and by tagging specific elements of those services within them, as well as (in some cases) the location that it relates to.

These four different content types are currently held in four different systems, which may or may not be where we want to be long term. But at the moment, this isn’t restricting our ability to take the information stored in these, tag them and use the results.

So what does this result in?

Pulling all of these principles together allows us to do some quite exciting things:

• We can pull news stories and events together to display on our plasma screens in our one stop shops.
• Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council can pull out just the events relating to Nuneaton and Bedworth and display them on their website.
• We can create a mobile app that looks at pulling together news and service delivery information for social care.

And, ultimately, we can pull together all of the service delivery information, events, news and consultations relating to a service together onto one page.

…To be continued…

24 hours in…

So, the new site design has been live for 24 hours already. The design (which includes all these new features), was rolled out across our ‘normal’ web pages, our forms system, our site search and a range of databases.

We’ve just finished added the social bookmarking links, which will make it easier for you to share services and information.

(As an aside – we are going to be including Twitter in the near future. This was all ready to go, but Twitter made changes to their link sharing format in the API, which has caused some last minute problems. UPDATE – Twitter button has been fixed and added back in.)

We’ve worked through the site, just making sure everything’s working and making sense. We’ve been checking links and adding links and services information to the ‘You may also be interested in’ and ‘Useful links’ boxes.

But please let us know if you spot any problems. The scale of the site means that some issues will have cropped up, and we want to know about them as soon as possible so we can fix them.

It’s worth remembering that this really is only part of the story – albeit a very large and important part. We will be following this up with a few more ‘launches’ in the next couple of weeks and months:

• News site, which promised to open up our news through much more granular RSS feeds;
• Corporate website, focusing on the working of the organisation;
• Staff, Partners and Practitioners website, containing all of the information for those groups;
• The Zone, aimed at children and young people

But for now, thank you for your support, and please keep the feedback coming.

New website features

After a lot of work, today, we’ve begun to roll out the brand new www.warwickshire.gov.uk. And there are a couple of things that are new and different that you might want to know about.

Brand new name

The biggest change is a name change. Warwickshire County Council is a firm believer in delivering excellent customer service, and has invested a lot of time and focus into working with other local authorities and organisations within Warwickshire under the name of ‘Warwickshire Direct’.

If you’ve been to one of our One Stop Shops in the county, or phoned our Customer Service Centre, you’ll have already been served by a member of Warwickshire Direct staff. It therefore made sense to change the customer-service part of the website over to Warwickshire Direct.

This doesn’t mean all of the council information is gone, or that we’ll be going through an expensive re-branding exercise. But we have started to focus much more on delivering customer services through the website. However, a separate ‘council’ area is accessible from the top of every page, with a similar layout to Warwickshire Direct, which we intend to launch in the near future.

Homepage features

We’ve tried to make the latest information about the council even more accessible to you from the homepage. Our features section will cover three of the most prominent happenings within the county, and will be updated on a regular basis.

Every page has it’s own address

You might have noticed that, by default, the addresses / URLs of our pages contained lots of superfluous letters and numbers. If you, like us, tend to remember web pages by their addresses, this wouldn’t have been that helpful to you. Now every Warwickshire Direct page has its own short address. Looking for a page about weddings in Warwickshire, that’s three levels in? No problem – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/weddings is all you’ll need to remember from now on.

Standard page layout and additional information

Sub-pages on the site now have key information separated out onto the right hand side of a page, to make important details, documents or related information more directly accessible to you. This is the same across all of the pages to make it easier to find the information you need.

We’ve broken this area down into the following broad sections:

Rate this page

We want to know if you’re happy with the way we’ve presented information to you, if you think we could be doing something better on a page, or if you’re very unhappy about a piece of content. To this end, we’ve made the ‘rate this page’ feature more prominent.

Contact details

On our old design, we sometimes found it a little difficult to work out which team to contact about a service, or find where they were based (if we needed to see them in person). So, we’ve made the contact and address details for each service much more prominent – and (where possible) provided direct address information to help you find our offices.

Top tasks

Feedback you’ve given us (along with analytical data and conversations with services) has given us a good idea of the kind of key tasks you’re trying to do when you visit our site. So, to make them easier for you, we’ve pushed them out into their own section so you can’t miss them.

Downloads and documents

If you’ve visited our site before – you might have noticed that we like to publish lots of documents online. With the redesign, we’ve aimed to make these documents more accessible to you (by providing document information in PDFs, or defined structures in Word files), give you an indication of their filesize, and their type within the link text. We’ve also added in a little at-a-glance indication for you (by way of an icon) to give you a heads up if you’re about to download a file.

You may also be interested in

Just as with ‘top tasks’, your feedback gives us a good idea of the types of related information you’re looking for, or might be interested in. So, to make that easier to find too, hand-picked additional links are present on most pages. And where we’ve linked

Social bookmarking

If a page on our site is useful to you – we want you to be able to share it. To that end, for our content pages, we’ve added in some extra functionality that will help you to quickly share a page on Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit or save it to Evernote. It’ll also help you to mail a quick link to a friend.

Latest news

On our old design, it wasn’t easy to find the latest news relating to a service (such as community safety or highways). Our latest initiatives would often get missed in amongst other content, and important information wouldn’t be as easily available to you as we wanted it to be. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out service-based news – and making it much harder to miss.

We’ll also be rolling out something a bit bigger for news in general soon – but we’ll tell you more about that another time.

Upcoming events

Our events system was, and still is, jam-packed full of happenings in and around Warwickshire. And, if you were on our front page, or in our events system – all of this information was readily available to you. But if you were on one of our sub-pages – you might have found it a little hard to find out about the latest events.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out service / content based events information across the site. Expect to see details of upcoming walks on the main country parks page, rhyme-times on the main libraries page, and more.

‘Me@WCC’ is now ‘my account’

‘Me@WCC’ was a term we used to define your online account with Warwickshire County Council. When we first looked at redesigning the site, this was one of those areas that we wanted to both make more usable – and more familiar to you.

So, to make it a little similar to other websites, we’ve dropped the ‘Me@WCC’ name, in favour of something a bit simpler. But – for now – the name is the only thing that’s changed. You can still log in with your current ‘Me@WCC’ details, sign up for school closure alerts, and use all of our other services.

Google Maps / Street View

We think that maps make things so much easier to find. So, we’ve spent a little time making the interactive maps we already had a little more prominent, and creating ones where we thought they’d be useful. We also decided to use Google’s map service to make the information available to you in general search results through Google Maps on your Android / iOS device.

In some places, we’ve also added in Google Street View versions, so you can see a building / place before you visit.

YouTube videos

We’ve been using YouTube to showcase our videos for awhile now – but now we’re planning to use it even more. Over the coming months we’ll be integrating YouTube videos into appropriate pages, and experimenting with their HTML5 player to deliver the same content to you across multiple devices.

In addition, we’ve been making sure that subtitle tracks are added to videos wherever possible – and turning them on by default.

Flickr photographs and galleries

Over the coming months, we will be exploring the possibilities of opening up some of our photographs under a creative commons license. To this end, we’ve begun exploring how we could use Flickr to help you find these photographs, and help us present them to you in an attractive manner.

Once we’ve completed the rollout of the new site, we’re hoping to talk to you a bit more about our photographs online, and what you’d find useful in the future.

Search engine

Searches on our site are now quicker to complete that ever before – with a search box in the top right hand corner of each page. Tap in the box – type – press return/enter – and get your results. We’ve tried to make a searching our site a quicker experience for you, and are trialling a few of extra enhancements for browsers with HTML5 capabilities.

We’ve also overhauled the design of our search engine, and tried to make it clearer when a search result will take you to a file (as opposed to a webpage), by adding those same ‘at-a-glance’ icons to the left of some results.

Recommended results

We’ve spent a lot of time looking at the results our search engine is bringing back to you, and trying to make our recommended results even more prominent, to make sure you don’t miss the right information. Recommended results are highlighted in boxes at the top of your search results, and will be maintained by us based on your feedback, and the feedback of service owners.

Accessibility

The overhaul of our site had a big objective in mind – to make our services and information easier to access for visitors with disabilities. We’ve therefore introduced a number of features to help visitors that use assistive technology – eg screenreaders – as well as improving the experience across other devices, such as mobile phones and tablet computers.

We’ve introduced access keys, allowing people to move to specific parts of the website, such as the search engine and our help section, just by using the keyboard. Our access keys page has more information on this.

Our developments to our content management system (the software that runs the website) has let us introduce semantic markup to our pages. Essentially, this allows your browser to put meaning to the pieces of text on the page – so it knows that a header is actually a header, not just large text. This, in turn, helps screenreaders to make sense of the page and can assist users navigate around pages.

Mobile friendly

The use of semantic markup (see above) has allowed us to roll out a page layout specifically for mobile phones. This places the right-hand information boxes at the bottom of the page, rejigs the header so that the links in it can all be seen on a narrow screen, and reduces the number of images displayed.

We certainly intend to investigate this area a bit more, exploring how best to display the site on other types of devices.

JavaScript

We’ve made great use of JavaScript during the redesign to provide dynamic information to you (such as the latest news relating to a service, or events at country parks) or graphical enhancements (such as the slideshow on the front page of the Warwickshire Direct site).

In doing this however, we’re aware that not everyone will have JavaScript enabled on their browsers (either due to personal preference or organisational security settings). In as many cases as possible where JavaScript isn’t available to you, we’ve attempted to provide an alternative, non-JavaScript way to access the same information. If you spot an area where we could be doing this better – please let us know via webmaster@warwickshire.gov.uk.

Supported browsers

Following on from Microsoft’s recent announcement of their intention to encourage people to upgrade older, less secure, versions of their web browser – this year, we’ve taken the decision to drop support for Internet Explorer 6.

The site has been designed to work with the major free web browsers available today (Internet Explorer 7 and up, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and other Webkit/Gecko based browsers), and has been tested on Windows XP/Vista/7, OSX and various Linux derivatives (Ubuntu, OpenSUSE). We’ve also tested it in some of the more obscure browsers, such as Links and Konqueror.

Bugs

Finally, we’ve spent a lot of time trying to iron out bugs over the past year, but if we’ve missed anything – or a page doesn’t load in the way you’re expecting it to – please don’t hesitate to let us know via webmaster@warwickshire.gov.uk. It would help us greatly if you can include information about the page you’ve visited (with a link and a screenshot would be ideal), the problem you’ve encountered, and your daytime contact details.

Changes to addresses – introducing shortcut addresses

After a few months slogging through setting up designs, systems and structures, we’re finally ready to start publishing pages. The downside of migrations is that lots of addresses may well stop working. The addresses we used to have depended on the old system. Unfortunately, with a change of system means a change of addresses. So we’ve decided to do two things to help.

• We’ll assign a ‘shortcut’ address to each new page/service. These are user-friendly addresses that we can point at addresses. So, for example, www.warwickshire.gov.uk/libraries. We’ve learnt from past mistakes, and if we start using shortcut addresses  now, we shouldn’t run into the same problems in the future.
• We’ll publish all of the new pages and corresponding shortcut addresses here as they happen. So, if you find that a link through to us has stopped working, just check the list below to see what the new one should be.

Migrated services

So, without further ado, here are the services and the corresponding shortcut address:

• Abandoned Vehicles – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/carclear
• Adopting in Warwickshire – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/adoptioninwarks
• Adoption – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/adoption
• Adoption support for birth families – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/adoptionbirthfamilies
• Advice about safer premises – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/saferpremises
• Advice on using rights of way – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rightsofwayadvice
• Advocacy and legal help for disabled people – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/disabilitysupportlegal
• Agricultural waste – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/agriculturalwaste
• Alcohol strategy – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/alcoholstrategy
• Animals on public rights of way – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/animalsrightsofway
• Animal health advice – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/animalhealthadvice
• Animal health emergencies – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/animalhealthemergencies
• Anti fraud and corruption – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/antifraud
• Anti social behaviour strategy – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/antisocialbehaviourstrategy
• Apply for a dropped kerb – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/droppedkerb
• Approved ceremony venues – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/approvedvenues
• Approved ceremony venue licensing – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/venuelicensing
• Applying for planning permission – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/planningforms
• Archaeology Warwickshire – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/archaeology
• Arson risk reduction – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/arsonrisk
• Ask now Library service – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/asknow
• Automatic fire alams (AFA’s) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/automaticfirealarms Automatic fire sprinkler systems – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/autosprinklers
• Become a translator or interpreter – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/becomeatranslator
• Biodiversity strategy – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/biodiversitystrategy
• A-Z of recycling – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/azrecycling (3 pages)
• Boat fire safety check scheme – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/boatsafety
• Books and reading – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/booksandreading
• Books on prescription  www.warwickshire.gov.uk/booksonprescription
• BSN: Environmental action outline – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/environmentalplanning
• BSN: Funding – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/bsnfunding
• BSN: Overview and support to community – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/bsn
• BSN: Planning ahead and advice – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/bsnplanningahead
• Bulky waste – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/bulkywaste
• Bullying – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/bullying
• Burton Dassett Hills Country Park – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/burtondassett
• Bus route maps – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/busroutemaps
• Bus service changes – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/busservicechanges
• Business centres – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/businesscentres
• Business continuity advice – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/businesscontinuity
• Business fire safety – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/businessfiresafety
• Business grants and loans – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/businessgrants
• Business safety advice – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/safetyadvice
• Calibration service – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/calibration
• Car boot changes – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/carbootsafety
• Car parking fines – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/carparkingfines
• Car parks – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/carparks
• Carers information – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/carers
• Careers information – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/careers
• CarShare – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/carshare
• CCTV requests (for Police) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/cctvpolice
• Changes to rights of way (footpaths) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rightsofwaychanges
• Charity shops – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/charityshops
• Chemical and Hazardous waste – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/chemicalwaste
• Child disability support – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/helpfordisabledchildren
• Child employment – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/childemployment
• Child Safety – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/childsafety
• Childcare for a disabled child – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/disabilitysupportchildcare
• Children, schools and families library – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/childrenslibrary
• Children in entertainment – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/childentertainment
• Children’s centres – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/childrenscentres
• Children’s University – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/childrensuniversity
• Citizenship ceremonies – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/citizenshipceremonies
• Civil funerals – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/civilfunerals
• Coach services in Warwickshire – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/coaches
• Coleshill parkway – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/coleshillparkway
• Colleges in Warwickshire – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/colleges
• Commemorative programme – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/commemoration
• Commenting on a planning application – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/commentingonplanning
• Complaints about councillors – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/councillorcomplaints
• Community forums – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/communityforums
• Community forums (North Warks) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/northwarksarea
• Community forums (Nun & Bed) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/nun-bedarea
• Community forums (Rugby) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rugbyarea
• Community forums (Stratford) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/stratfordarea
• Community forums (Warwick) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/warwickarea
• Community safety agreement – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/communitysafetyagreement
• Commercial waste – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/commercialwaste
• Common land and village greens – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/villagegreens
• Community furniture reuse – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/reuseschemes
• Community information database – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/cid
• Compost – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/composting
• Computers and Internet – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/computersandinternet
• Constitution – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/constitution
• Consumer advice – trading standards – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tradingstandardsleaflets
• Consumer advice – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/consumeradvice
• Consumer safety – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/consumersafety
• Contemporary and Popular Music Group – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/popmusic
• Council Tax – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/counciltaxpayments
• Copy birth, death and marriage certificates – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/copycertificates
• Country Parks questionnaire – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parksquestionnaire
• Countryside – disabled access – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/countrysideaccess
• Countryside rights of way – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rightsofway
• County farm and smallholdings – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/smallholdings
• County performance groups cost, membership and administration – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/cpgcost
• CRB checking (info for public) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/crb
• CRB checking (info for staff) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/crbstaff
• CyberSentinel – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/cybersentinel
• Customer care standards – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/customercare
• Cycle training for adults – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/cycletraining
• Cycle training instructors wanted – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/cycleinstructors
• Cycling and rail travel – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/railandcycle
• Dangerous subtances notifications – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/substances
• Dial-a-ride – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/dar
• Disability staff network – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/dsn
• Disabled parking badge – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/disabledparkingbadge
• Disabled parking bay – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/disabledparkingbay
• Dogs in the countryside – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/dogsinthecountryside
• Drains, ditches, hedges and trees – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/roadhedges
• Drive for life – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/driveforlife
• Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/dofe
• E Roads and unclassified county roads – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/unclassifiedroads
• e-books – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ebooks
• Elderly passengers – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/elderlypassengers
• Elections – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/elections
• Electonic goods – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/electronicgoods
• Electric blankets and portable heaters – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/electricblanket
• Employer of Choice Award– www.warwickshire.gov.uk/employerofchoice
• Employment transport – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/employmenttransport
• Environment education – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parked
• Environmental business support – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/environmentalbusinesssupport
• Estate road design guide – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/roaddesigns
• Ethnic minority staff network – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/bme
• European funding – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/europeanfunding
• Explosives storage license – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/explosiveslicense
• Facing the challenge (savings info) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/facingthechallenge
• Farmers market – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/farmersmarket
• Find a Library – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/findalibrary
• Fire and rescue careers – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fireandrescuecareers
• Fire and rescue service – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fireandrescue
• Fire and rescue emergency support service – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fess
• Fire safety legislation – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/safetylegislation
• First Responders – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/firstresponders
• Financial standing orders – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/standingorders
• Financial Projects Group – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/financialprojectsgroup
• Flexibus service – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/flexibus
• Fly-tipping and litter – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/flytippingandlitter
• Food sector support – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/foodsectorsupport
• Food standards and safety – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/foodsafety
• Fostering (NAV) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fostering
• Fostering in Warwickshire – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fosteringinwarwickshire
• Foster care NVQs – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fosteringnvq
• Free school meals – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals
• Funding for local projects – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fundinglocalprojects
• Further help for the families of a disabled child – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/disabilitysupportfurtherhelp
• Future jobs fund (info for staff) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fjfemployers
• Future jobs fund (info for public) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/futurejobsfund
• Garden waste – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/gardenwaste
• Gating orders – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/gatingorders
• George Eliot collection – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/georgeeliot
• Get involved in your child’s learning – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/getinvolvedinlearning
• Grass verge cutting – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/grassverge
• Gypsies and traveller sites – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/travellersites
• Gypsy and traveller crime and abuse reporting – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/travellercrimeandabuse
• Gypsy and traveller support service – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/travellersupport
• Hartshill Hayes Country Park – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/hartshillhayescountrypark
• Having your say at regulatory committee for planning – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/regulatorycommittee
• Health information – Alcohol – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/alcohol
• Health Information – Drugs – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/drugs
• HGV limits and routing – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/hgv
• Highway insurance claim – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/highwayinsuranceclaim
• Highway search enquiries – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/highwaysearches
• Holidays and short breaks for disabled children – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/disabilitysupportholidays
• Home escape plan advice – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/escapeplan
• Home fire safety checks – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/firesafetycheck
• Home teaching – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/homeeducation
• Home woodchipping service – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/woodchipping
• Hotels and boarding houses – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/hotelsafety
• Housebound services – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/housebound
• Household Waste – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/householdwaste
• Household waste recycling centres – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/hwrc
• ICT business support – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ictbusinesssupport
• Internet Safety – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/internetsafety
• Interpreting and translation – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/interpreting
• Join the Library – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/jointhelibrary
• Junkmail – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/junkmail
• Kenilworth Greenway project  – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/connect2kenilworth
• Kerbside collections – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/kerbside
• Kingsbury Water Park – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/kingsburywaterpark
• Kitchen and food waste – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/kitchenwaste
• Landowners guide to public rights of way – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/landownersrightsofway
• Landscape architecture service – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/landscapedesign
• Legal advice – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/familylegaladvice
• Leisure centres – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/leisurecentres
• LGBT staff network – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/lgbt
• Library costs and fines – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/librarycostsandfines
• Libraries (individual libraries) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/findalibrary
• Libraries – music and DVDs – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/librarymusicfilms
• Local and national cycle routes – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/cycleroutes
• Local funding advice – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/grants
• Local history – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/localhistory
• Local studies and family history – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/localstudies
• Medical transport – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/medicaltransport
• Minibus and passenger vehicles  – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/drivertraining
• Mobile libraries – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/mobilelibraries
• Motorbike training – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/motorbiketraining
• MPs in Warwickshire  – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/mps
• Mulch – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/mulchingmowers
• Music and drama collection – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/musicanddramacollection
• Music and early years – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/musicearlyyears
• Music and films in libraries – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/librarymusicfilms
• Music performance groups – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/musicgroups
• Music therapy – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/musictherapy
• Music tuition and instruments – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/musictuition
• Naming ceremonies – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/namingceremonies
• Nationality checking – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/nationalitychecking
• On street parking – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/onstreetparking
• One stop shops  – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/onestopshops
• Online reference library – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/onlinereferencelibrary
• Organising an event on the highway – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/highwayevent
• Other business support organisations – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/businesssupportorganisations
• Outdoor education – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/outdooreducation
• Overdue items – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/overdueitems
• Parent support adviser service – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fispsa
• Parenting programmes – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parentingtraining
• Parenting support (Nav) – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parentingsupport
• Parenting support for Dads – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parentsupportdads
• Parenting support for families of prisoners – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parentsupportprisoners
• Parenting support for Lone parents – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parentsupportlone
• Parenting support for mums – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parentsupportmums
• Parenting support -relationships, separation and divorce – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parentsupportrelationships
• Park and ride – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parkandride
• Parties in the park – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/childparkparties
• Paths and trails – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/pathsandtrails
• Petroleum storage license – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/petroleumstorage
• Planning and public rights of way – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rightsofwayplanning
• Planning appeals – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/planningappeals
• Pooley Country Park – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/pooleycountrypark
• Potholes – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/potholes
• Private road protection – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/privateroad
• Property searches – public rights of way – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/propertypublicrightsofway
• Quality systems support – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/qualitysystemsupport
• Ragwort – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ragwort
• Rail services in Warwickshire – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rail
• Real Nappies – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/cottonnappies
• Recycing Centre Burton Farm – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/recyclingburtonfarm
• Recycing Centre Cherry Orchard – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/recyclingcherryorchard
• Recycing Centre Grendon – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/recyclinggrendon
• Recycing Centre Hunters Lane – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/recyclinghunterslane
• Recycing Centre Judkins – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/recyclingjudkins
• Recycing Centre Princes Drive – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/recyclingprincesdrive
• Recycing Centre Shipston – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/recyclingshipston
• Recycing Centre Stockton – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/recyclingstockton
• Recycing Centre Wellesbourne – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/recyclingwellesbourne
• Recycling centre vehicle permits – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/licenceandpermits
• Registering a birth – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/birthregistration
• Registering a civil partnerships – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/civilpartnershipregistration
• Registering a death – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/deathregistration
• Registering a marriages – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/marriages
• Registering a still-birth – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/stillbirths
• Registration offices – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/registrationoffices
• Renew your library items – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/renew
• Renewal of vows – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/vowrenewal
• Report highway problems – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/reporthighwayproblem
• Report streetlighting faults – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/streetlightingfault
• Report unauthorised gypsy & traveller encampments – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/travellerunauthorisedsites
• Reporting a potential breach of planning control – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/planningreporting
• Reporting anti-social behaviour – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/antisocial
• Resident parking – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/residentparking
• Road closures affecting bus services – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/busroutechanges
• Road markings – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/roadmarkings
• Road safety advice – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/roadsafetyadvice
• Road safety advice for parents – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/roadsafetyparents
• Road safety audit – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/roadsafetyaudit
• Road safety education – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/roadsafetyeducation
• Road signs – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/roadsigns
• Rogue traders and scams – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/scams
• Rural business support – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ruralbusinesssupport
• Ryton Pools Country Park – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rytonpoolscountrypark
• SAFE – Fire education and safety awareness – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/safe
• School closures – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schoolclosures
• School exclusions – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/exclusions
• Special Education Needs transport assistance – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/sentransport
• School appeals – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schoolappeals
• School attendance – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schoolattendance
• School complaints – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schoolcomplaints
• School finder – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schoolfinder
• School governors – becoming a governor – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/becomeagovernor
• School holiday dates – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schoolholidaydates
• School meals – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schoolmeals
• Skip Licence – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/skiplicence
• Smoke alarms – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/smokealarms
• Special education needs transport – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/sentransport
• Special educational needs – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/sen
• Speed awareness workshops – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/speed
• SpeedAware – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/speedaware
• Sports ground safety certificates – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/sportsaftey
• Starting a business – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/startingabusiness
• Starting out cycling – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/startoutcycling
• Stratford Park and Ride – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/stratfordparkandride
• Street Café licence – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/cafelicence
• Street kiosks – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/streetkiosks
• Street parties – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/streetparties
• Street works licence – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/streetworkslicence
• Streetlighting standards – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/streetlightingstandards
• Student finance – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/studentsupport
• Support for adoptive families – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/adoptionfamilysupport
• Support for new parents and parents to be – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/parentsupportnew
• Support for people that have been adopted – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/adoptionsupport
• Surface dressing – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/surfacedressing
• Temporary road closures – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/roadclosures
• Temporary structures licence on the highway – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tempstructures
• The Kenilworth Greenway – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/kenilworthgreenway
• The Offchurch Greenway – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/offchurchgreenway
• The Stratford Greenway – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/stratfordgreenway
• Tourism business support – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tourismbusinesssupport
• Tourism signs – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tourismsigns
• Tourist information – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tourists
• Trading standards Business advice – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tradingstandardsbusinessadvice
• Trading standards enforcement policy – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tsenforcementpolicy
• Trading standards leaflets – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tradingstandardsleaflets
• Traffic regulation order – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/trafficregulation
• Transport assistance for students aged 16-19 – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/transporthelp16-19
• Transport assistance for students under 16 – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/transporthelpunder16
• Transport for students on medical grounds – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/educationmedicaltransport
• Ufton Fields Nature Reserve – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/uftonfields
• Underage sales – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/underagesales
• Use the library – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/usethelibrary
• Vehicle seat scheme – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/vacantseatscheme
• Vehicle loan scheme – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/vehicleloanschemes
• Volunteer car scheme – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/volunteercarschemes
• Volunteer test purchaser – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/mysteryshopper
• Volunteering in the countryside – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/countrysidevolunteering
• Warwick town centre map – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/locationmap
• Warwickshire Early Music Academy – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/earlymusicacademy
• Warwickshire landscape guidelines – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/landscapeguidelines
• Weighbridges – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/weighbridges
• Winter road maintenance – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/gritting
• Work travel plans – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/worktravelplans
• Working Lives – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/workinglives
• Workplace fire safety – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/workplacesafety
• Your library pin – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/yourlibrarypin
• Youth Chorale – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/youthchorale
• Youth Jazz Orchestra – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/youthjazzorchestra
• Youth Justice Service – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/youthjustice
• Youth Orchestra – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/youthorchestra
• Youth Rock and Pop Institute – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rockandpopinstitute
• Youth Steel Orchestra “Pannissimo” – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/pannissimo
• Youth Viol Consort “Gutted” – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/gutted
• Youth Waits – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/youthwaits
• Youth Wind Band – www.warwickshire.gov.uk/youthwindband

Website Top Tasks: Update

Back in December we asked you to tell us the main types of thing that you come to the Warwickshire Web to do. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to complete our latest survey and told us their top tasks. If you haven’t yet completed the survey, but would like to, it’s still open and can be viewed on the link below:

Warwickshire Website Redesign: Top Tasks

Remember, you don’t need to spend a lot of time filling this out, your first choices, more-often-than-not, will be the most accurate, so only aim to spend a few minutes on completing it.

From the responses that we have had so far, we can reveal the top five tasks that you come to the Warwickshire Web to complete are:

1. Bus Timetables and Routes

 

2. Recycling Centres

 

3. Adoption Services

 

4. School Attendance

 

5. Cycling Routes

Do you agree with these? Are these the types of task that you visit us to complete? If not, then why not complete the survey and tell us your top tasks.

Why do you visit us?

Complete Top Tasks Exercise

In the beginning: websites were about information, organisations used them to put as much detail about themselves as they could with little, or no, thought to whether their customers really wanted to wade through all the confusing ‘carbon’ of information to find the ‘diamond’ task that they had visited for in the first place. Good organisations do not use their websites to tell you how great they are, they demonstrate that greatness by making it easy for you to complete tasks.

As part of the redesign of the Warwickshire website we have been looking at why people visit us in the first place. It turns out that you are not visiting us to see how well we can describe our services or for our lovely images, you are just not that bothered! More often, than not, you are visiting us to complete tasks that are important to your life, for example to find out how to register births, deaths or marriages or to locate your nearest children’s centre.

We are committed to moving away from an information-based website and towards a task-based one, but for this to work the process of completing tasks on the new site needs to be as easy for you as we can make it. We can’t do this without your help.

We need you to tell us the tasks that you are most likely to visit the Warwickshire website to complete. To help with this we have created the survey below that features a long list of all the tasks that the site can be used to complete.

Complete Top Tasks Exercise

To help us to get the best results, we don’t want you to think too much about the top 5 choices, which may seem strange, but often your first, spontaneous choices will be the most accurate for you and that is the information we want. Aim to spend no more than 2 minutes making your choices.

Designs – Concepts and layouts: Part 3 – detail detail detail

Let’s take a moment to look at some of your thoughts in detail and ring some of the changes (please note – to keep comments succinct, we’ve adjusted them slightly).

Navigation

A week ago we asked if you preferred the vertical or horizontal navigation on the proposed designs.

You said to us:

‘I prefer navigation being horizontal – it  enables you to put more information on each screen’

‘we prefer navigation to appear on the left hand side’

‘the horizontal design is easier on the eye’

‘I think vertical navigation looks better’

‘the wording in the menu needs to change’

So what did we do?

Firstly, we sat down and discussed the benefits of each layout in more detail. The comments coming back (both verbally and in written form) seemed to be favouring a horizontal layout – but only just.

If we had to put a figure on your opinions today, we’d guess that the split would be somewhere around: 60% in favour of horizontal navigation, and 40% favouring a vertical structure.

And – if that’s any indication of what Warwickshire as a whole might think – we’re going to need some more information. So, to that end, we’re going to undertake some direct user testing.

In the very near future, we will setup shop for a day at the Warwickshire Direct One Stop Shop in Warwick, and ask you to give  us your opinions, and undertake a couple of usability tests for us. Based on that (and the feedback that we hope you will carry on giving to us) – we’ll decide later in the day on vertical or horizontal. But for now, because you’re slightly favouring horizontal – we’ve only showcased that type of design above.

Once we’d finished talking about horizontal and vertical layouts – we got onto the topic of wording.

We’re still receiving a steady stream of responses to our request for help in sorting our services – and we’re not quite ready to close the doors just yet. So, we’ll carry on using the current wording in our designs / examples (with a few tweaks to show you how things are progressing) – but the final terminology won’t be decided until next year. Which means you’ve still got plenty of time to have your say on our navigational terminology.

Search

We didn’t ask you anything about search engines (although we did tease an idea that we’re working on) – but you gave us some valuable feedback, which we’d like to share.

You said to us:

‘the search engine box needs to be a little ‘tighter’ with the button’

‘if you’re splitting up information – I want to be able to search multiple sites from one place’

So what did we do?

We’d always planned to make the search box in the top right a little more attractive – but we were going to revisit it a little later down the line (once we’d undertaken a little more work around where that query would take you). But – we’ve done it a little sooner based on your comments, and made it slightly more in keeping with the rest of the new, lighter, design.

Now – the reason we’d originally planned to revisit it a little later – was because we’re currently looking in detail at how you are searching around our site(s), what you’re searching for, and what results you are (or aren’t) getting back.

We can’t give too much away yet – but we’re very interested in that search box – and we have an idea for how you could bring back information about multiple different sites in one go. But more on that, another time.

Orientation

One thing that you’ve been pretty clear in telling us – is that you can tell we’ve designed the site for non-widescreen monitors.

You said to us:

‘the design is a little bit dated – people tend to use widescreen monitors these days’

‘maybe you should use more horizontal width than you currently seem to be’

So what did we do?

We took a look at our analytical information, and statistics about the general system capabilities of our visitors. Here’s a screenshot of what we saw (for a typical month):

 

Website Resolution Statistics

 

In summary:

• 31.58% (99,592) of our visitors have a screen resolution of 1280×1024 (fullscreen)
• 21.23% (66,952) of our visitors have a screen resolution of 1024×768 (fullscreen)
• 14.91% (47,035) of our visitors have a screen resolution of 1280×800 (widescreen)
• 6.87% (21,670) of our visitors have a screen resolution of 1366×768 (widescreen)
• 5.16% (16,258) of our visitors have a screen resolution of 1440×900 (widescreen)
• 2.75% (8,673) of our visitors have a screen resolution of 1680×1050 (widescreen)
• 1.44% (4,542) of our visitors have a screen resolution of 1024×600 (widescreen)
• 1.42% (4,492) of our visitors have a screen resolution of 1152×864 (fullscreen)
• 1.14% (3,598) of our visitors have a screen resolution of 800×600 (fullscreen)
• 1.13% (3,572) of our visitors have a screen resolution of 320×480 (widescreen)

(percentages below 1.13% not shown)

This means that approximately 55% of our visitors are currently seeing our site through fullscreen (4:3 ratio) displays. Although we are seeing an increase in the number of visitors using widescreen displays – our analytical information is showing us that we currently need to focus our designs around fullscreen devices. These will, of course, work just the same on widescreen devices.

But – there is a little caveat to that statement. We’re aiming to create / develop designs that could be adjusted quickly and easily, should the need for a widescreen design become apparent. We are also very aware that the 320×480 resolution that’s currently at the bottom of the above list (but is slowly creeping up) – is just the same size as popular fruit-related smartphone currently on the market. So we’re also looking at some device-specific stylesheets. But, again, more on that another time.

Colour and Light

You said to us:

‘it’s a bit dark’

‘the deep green and dark background feel very oppressive’

‘I don’t like the green’

So what did we do?

We took a long look at the designs we’d come up with, held them in our arms, got a bit tearful – and then scrapped them.

Using the same content / service-focused layout, but a different approach, we came up with a much lighter design over an afternoon (which you’ll already have seen above).

Your comments about colour – were very interesting to us. Especially because there wasn’t one consistent message coming through – but rather several similar different opinions on what colour we should be using.

We’ve got some thinking to do and will get back to you.

In Summary

This is a website made for you – not us. We’re not precious about designs, ideas, structure or content – we just want to make things easier for you when you visit and use our services online.

Any comments, suggestions, thoughts or ideas that you have, about any aspect of this project – are thoroughly welcome. So why not take a moment and let us know if you think the lighter design is better, if we’re listening to you well enough, if you have a particular gripe about how we do things online, or anything about a web related topic of your choice.

 

Designs – Concepts and layouts: Part 2 – the lighter side of life

Around a week ago, we showcased possible new designs for the warwickshire.gov.uk website – and (although not much of it has been through this blog) we’ve had a lot of excellent feedback, focusing around a few key points:

1. Navigation;
2. Search;
3. Orientation;
4. Colour, and
5. Light.

Well, we heard everything you said (so much so, that we’ll be following this up in the near future with a more detailed look at what you told us) – and we’ve made a few changes to the concept (and some of our ideas) because of it.

We asked you about horizontal or vertical navigation. We did have some comments supporting vertical, but most were in favour of horizontal. Unfortunately, it’s got to be either one or the other – there’s no middle ground. So we’ve taken the decision to go with horizontal/top navigation. We’ll talk a bit more about this in future posts.

And with that, we present to you…

New concepts

 

Horizontal Navigation - Service Listing (lighter version)

 

Horizontal Navigation - Service Page (lighter version)

 

So – what do you think?

Is the lighter design better?

Have we heard everything you’ve said to us?

Do you have a particular gripe about how we do things online?

The comment box is just below, our email address is webmaster@warwickshire.gov.uk – and you’re open to ask us about anything, anytime.

Designs – Concepts and layouts

After a lot of thought about how you’re currently using the existing Warwickshire County Council website, analysis of your feedback on how we should be sorting our services, and discussions around how we’re planning to deliver even better services to you online – we’ve got some screenshots to show you.

The following images are all of work-in-progress / beta designs – and it’s important to note that nothing (literally – nothing) has been agreed / decided on yet. The colour scheme is still to be confirmed (it might not be our ‘traditional’ green), two column and three column layouts are both possibilities, and before we come close to switching ‘off’ our old design we’d like you to have an opportunity to play around with a live beta (which is a few months away).

So, when looking at the following screenshots, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:

• we want all of our online websites / applications to have consistent elements (such as a standardised header), so they’re easier to navigate through;
• we’re using high-contrast colours to bring information out and focus your eyes on important sections (such as ‘contact details’, or ‘forms’) that are currently lost in the middle of paragraphs or at the bottom of long pages;
• we think the search engine should be easily accessible from wherever you are (and we’ve got a few ideas about the technology behind how you search too) – which is why we’ve made it more prominent, and;
• you’ve told us that you’d like more information on where we are / how you can reach us – so we’re experimenting with Google Maps (using non Ordinance Survey derived data) to bring you more useful content.

And with that – here are the screenshots, which you can click on for larger (high resolution) versions.

Possible layout #1: 2 column, horizontal navigation

Horizontal Navigation - Service Listing

Horizontal Navigation - Service Page

Possible layout #2: 3 column, vertical navigation

Vertical Navigation - Service Listing

Vertical Navigation - Service Page

So now that you’ve seen a few screenshots – what do you think? Are we going in the right direction? Is information easier for you to find quickly – or have we made it more difficult? Which do you prefer – two columns or three? Should we have horizontal navigation, or vertical?

We’ll publish some homepage designs at a later date, but as most of our traffic actually comes from Google searches, straight to the information pages, we thought we’d concentrate on these to start with. The decisions here will then influence the homepage.

We want your thoughts. Leave comments below or email webmaster@warwickshire.gov.uk

Get Involved! (Part 1)

In earlier posts and new stories, we have hinted that we will be using your feedback to shape the websites. This wasn’t a hollow promise, and your time to shine is now here.

Sort Warwickshire’s Services

As we’ve mentioned, Warwickshire County Council offers an awful lot of services, and we need to start structuring the website in a way that makes it easy to find them.

When we (as WCC staff) think of how our services might be ordered, we often fall into the trap of following our internal structures. So instead of finding a service in a ‘useful’ section, it’ll be hidden in one named after a department or a team, which may make no sense to you.

So we would like you to categorise our services for us. We promise, it’ll only take a few minutes. In fact, the quicker and more impulsive your answers, the better! There are 166 services to sort, but we really don’t expect anyone to work through them all. Just click the ‘Done’ button when you’ve had enough.

Now that the evenings are drawing in, why not make an evening of it and get the whole family involved? The more people doing this, the better the website at the end.

Simply visit the following website and follow the instructions.

Sort Warwickshire’s Services

It’s completely anonymous, there are no right or wrong answers, and the only prize is the warm sense of pride from knowing that you helped shape such a well-visited website.

Many thanks in advance!

P.S.
For the record, we’re using a piece of kit called WebSort.